The article is devoted to the scientific and practical activities of the prominent representative of the school of political arithmetic W. Petty. He was a well-known English economist, physician, inventor of copying equipment, doctor of physics, professor of astronomy, founder of English classical political economy, statesman, one of the founders of the Royal Society of London. In the article the biography of W. Petty is outlined and his role in the formation of scientific statistics is considered. The main works of the scientist such as: “Political arithmetic”, “A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions”, “Verbum Sapienti posthum”, “Political anatomy of Ireland” are analyzed. The views of the scientist on a wide range of socio-economic problems of the time and directions of their solution are considered Petty’s contribution to the development of methodological foundations of statistical science is determined. The article emphasizes the historic merit of the scientist in creating the basis of the statistical- economic method of research. The focus was made on W Petty’s application of the methods of collecting, processing, systematization and generalization of statistical information. W Petty first calculated the magnitude of the national wealth of England and Wales and made calculations of the national income, as well as differentiated these concepts and paid attention not only to the monetary form, but also material. In essence, from these calculations we can speak about the emergence of the foundations of the modern system of macroeconomic national accounting. It was also a great achievement of W Petty that he identified his main task of studying the laws of social phenomena. He was the first to raise the issue of the necessity of establishing a state statistical service and outline outlined its main activities. His achievements of the scientist concerning forecasting and comparative characteristics of the population of large cities of Europe are also considered. The article reflects the thoughts and statements of the descendants of W Petty, well-known researchers in the history of statistics, who highly appreciated the role and contribution of the scientist in the formation of statistical science.

The article is devoted to the scientific and practical activities of the outstanding scientist-economist, profound theorist, active publicist and prominent Ukrainian public figure Mykola Ivanovych Ziber. The life of the scientist, his historical role in the development of political economy and statistics are considered. Mykola Ziber was a great connoisseur of classical English economic literature and the newest German economic literature. He systematized and popularized the ideas of classical political economy. The contribution of the scientist to the development of the theoretical and methodological foundations of statistics is determined. Mykola Ziber actively used the historical-evolutionary and interdisciplinary subjection in the study of the interconnectedness of economic activity and legal economic relations. The scientist paid a lot of attention to the analysis of land relations and co-operation, industrial development and the impact of progress on socio-economic processes. A prominent economist with an analytical mind examined various historical and economic issues, analysed socio-economic processes in different countries of the world. Great attention Mykola Ziber paid to questions of statistical classifications, defining their features and imperfections. He focused on the commonly defined division of statistics into three main groups: population statistics, economic statistics, and moral statistics. Scientist revealed the essence of the phenomena belonging to these groups and their classification. The article describes Ziber’s attempt to build a program that would enable the development of material that characterizes social life. Mykola Ziber believed that it is necessary to study demographic processes and socio-physiological relation, generalize information that characterizes these processes, and more widely use average values. The author was convinced that in order to develop a holistic program for the study of social phenomena it was necessary, in addition to demographic processes, to study information on production and consumption. The program, developed by Mykola Ziber was one of the first, which was used by the statistics of Chernihiv region to study the socio-economic development of the country. It made possible to describe in detail the state of socio-economic phenomena. The author has sufficiently clearly defined all the necessary questions. A system of statistical indicators was formed, method of grouping was widely used, and objects were considered on a number of different features. Mykola Ziber’s work made a sufficient contribution to the enrichment of the methodology of statistical research.